Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Obol
| Issuer | Tarentum |
|---|---|
| Year | 280 BC - 228 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Obol (⅙) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A kantharos (two-handled wine cup) depicted in profile at centre, with volute handles and a stepped foot, rendered in low relief. Four pellets are disposed around the vessel in the field. A cornucopia appears to the left of the kantharos, angled diagonally with its tip pointing upward, symbolising abundance and prosperity. The overall composition is characteristic of the standardised reverse types employed on Tarentine obol coinage of the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (280 BC - 228 BC) |
| Additional information |
Tarentum's small silver fractions from this period were struck under mounting pressure from Rome's expanding influence in Magna Graecia — the same decades that saw the city invite Pyrrhus of Epirus to intervene militarily on their behalf in 280 BC. The alliance ultimately failed, and by 272 BC Tarentum had capitulated to Rome, though the mint continued operating under reduced autonomy for decades after.
The Vlasto reference range here is broad, spanning some sixty die combinations catalogued by Rhousopoulos Vlasto in his foundational 1922 corpus — still the definitive study for Tarentine coinage.